Finally, finally, after about 3 years of waiting, Antony and the Johnsons will be releasing an EP on Oct 7 entitled Another World. To celebrate the release, Antony is playing two US concerts, one in LA and one in Harlem, with full orchestration co-arranged by the brilliant Nico Muhly. Those dates are here. There will also be two dates in the UK. Antony's next full length, The Crying Light, will apparently be released on January 21, 2009.

If you somehow missed I Am A Bird Now, which won the Mercury Prize for Best Album of 2005, do yourself a favor and grab a copy. Or if you aren't in the mournful mood, you can check out Antony's flawless vocal contributions to Hercules and Love Affair's self titled album. This should get you up and dancing:

And if you wanna hear Antony singing "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," click here.

The Grindhouse Film Festival returns to LA's New Beverly Cinema TONIGHT (Tuesday) with two more mindblowing films from the glory days of the grindhouses and drive-ins. For this special event we'll have an incredible Linda Blair double-feature from the 80's with rare 35mm prints of SAVAGE STREETS (1984) and CHAINED HEAT (1983). We expect to have a couple of special guests in attendance, and we'll also be celebrating the recent release of SAVAGE STREETS as a 2-disc special edition DVD by BCI Eclipse.

The event starts at 7:30pm, and admission for the two features plus a reel of rare exploitation trailers and our world-famous free raffle is still only $8.

On this day (September 30) in 1962 CBS radio broadcast the final episodes of Suspenseand Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and the Golden Age of Radio came to a close.

RADIO'S BEGINNINGS

Radio Drama (also frequently referred to as Old Time Radioor OTR) really began in the 1920s. Before that, there was audio theater which consisted of plays performed for radio broadcast. It wasn't until August 3, 1922 at the Schenectady, New Yorkstation WGY that the in-house actors, The WGY Players, broadcast a performance that augmented the drama with music and sound effects, creating a vivid aural tapestry. The result was a worldwide explosion in what was an instantly popular new art form. Within months there were radio dramas being produced across the USA, as well as in Canada, Ceylon, France, Germany, India, Japan, and theUK.

On hearing the eponymous debut by the British contemporary folkies Eighteenth Day of May, one would be harp-pressed to claim that it was not recorded during the classic era of British Folk-Rock. American flautist/vocalist, Alison Brice, Swedish multi-instrumentalist Richard Olsen and their British cohorts have crafted a bright slab of pastoral folksong, including a nod to their legendary forefathers, Pentangle, with their cover of Bert Jansch's Deed I Do.

As was the case with releases by Pentangle nearly 40 years earlier, Eighteenth Day of May is a mixed bag. A few of the songs lag a bit and the overall air is fairly edgeless, but the ensemble playing and forward drive is often quite beautiful and evocative of that classic generation that first folded their electric guitars and vintage amps into the rich history of traditional British folksong.

I won't claim that you will replace your Fairport Convention or Incredible String Band's marker in the CD rack with this album, but at clearance pricing, there is certainly enough sublimity to justify the expense, and then some.

Alternative hip-hop duo dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip is made up of, respectively, musician and producer Dan Stephens and emcee/vocalist David Meads, left to right in opposite photo. The duo arrived triumphantly on the UK music scene last year with their breakout debut hit single "Thou Shalt Always Kill," which became an instant hit.

Packed with wit and sly observations on British pop culture, it topped the XFM and BBC radio charts and won high praise in countless media outlets, including the GuardianUK, which called the track the "underground anthem" of 2007 and the NME, which proclaimed it "The Track of the Year" -- and this despite the fact that the song mocks the same UK music mag in its ever satirical lyrics. Since the runaway success of "Thou Shalt Always Kill" as both a single and a video (see clip below), the talented duo have kept very busy. They've toured back home as well as performing at festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, including at the Glastonbury, Leeds, and Reading festivals in England and at both Coachella and SxSWin the States this year.

They've also been busy recording and releasing a series of follow-up singles, including "Letter from God to Man," "Beat That My Heart Skipped," and "Look For The Woman." They have also just released their debut album this month, Angles, which includes all of their singles, released in the US on Sage Francis' Strange Famous label (available at Amoeba).
The pair are currently on their first US tour in support of this debut album, with Cali dates including tomorrow in LA at Echo (Tuesday Sept 30th) and Wednesday in San Francisco at Cafe du Nord (Oct 1st).

A co-worker expressed the opinion while listening to Malo’s first album that perhaps the worst thing for both Malo and Santana were the Santana brothers themselves. The need for Carlos and Jorge to ruin the groove set by the rhythm section with a guitar solo plagued each band as time went on. Their audience loved it but soon it became formulaic and an instant cliché for Chicano bands for years to come. But when the style was fresh, everyone around the world wanted to sound like them, including the artists themselves who originally influenced the Chicano sound. Notice how many artists, including Miles Davis, The Rolling Stones, The Fania All-Stars and The Isley Brothers, started to sound like Santana, Malo & El Chicano at one point or another.

Malo’s self-titled album came out in 1972. By then, Carlos was world famous and jamming with the likes of John McLaughlin and Miles Davis. Malo came out of two San Francisco bands-- The Malibus and Naked Lunch (named after the infamous William Burroughs book). There were a few differences between Malo and Santana. For one, Malo had a horn section, giving them that Chicago/Blood Sweat & Tears sound. The other difference is that along with the jams, they had songs. Songs like "Café" and "Pana" are still the blueprints of Chicano Rock today, from the house band at Rick’s Burgers in Alhambra to Carlos Santana's multi-Grammy award winning Supernatural. Like most Chicano bands, Malo was a mixed race band and a hodgepodge of both Latin and Anglo influences. You can hear flashes of Miles DavisIn A Silent Way on "Just Say Goodbye" and Joe Bataan’s influence on "Nena."

The “breakthrough” album is something most critically acclaimed artists have to contend with. It’s the pressure to get to that elusive “next level.” Sometimes the pressure comes from outside sources, such as the record label or management. Other times it’s self-induced. It’s the desire to grow out of the confines of one’s fan base in order to seek a larger audience. Perhaps the move is purely artistic, to grow into a new sound or a new image, damn the loyalists and critics!

Lila Downs’ latest release, Shake Away, is just that. It is an attempt to go beyond the confines of a cult following. It is her chance to shed her past image as the token Mexican Diva and perhaps become a household Diva. Out of the sixteen songs on the album, more than half are in English, which should make her songs more accessible to a non-Spanish speaking audience.

That should make songs such as "Little Man," a Mexican Banda song (the style of which usually has most Americanos groaning) made easily digestible with English lyrics and a guitar solo. It is an “every person” song of the working immigrant, just trying to get by like everyone else. But the problem with the songs is that it lacks the spice, the flavor, and the balls for one to care about the immigrant that does the jobs that no one wants to do. The same problem exists within "Minimum Wage," a song about the trials and tribulations of immigrants in the U.S. by way of Loretta Lynn. It’s a down home country vibe that’s awkward at best, with the message getting lost on the train to Nashville. These two songs feel like Lila is both trying too hard and trying too much. Another sign of that is her version of "Black Magic Woman," a duet with pop singer Raul Mídon. Upon first listen I could almost hear the music executives saying:

Sleater-Kinney's "You're No Rock n Roll Fun" is such a perfect rock song! And the video is hottness.

A long time ago, I read that this song was inspired in part by Elliott Smith, who tended to be withdrawn and commonly wanted to sit in the corner and hear one song over and over again at parties, lost in thought. It was supposed to be an affectionate calling out of sorts. Either way, the song's a blast.

Ballots will be sent to more than 500 voters, most of whom are music industry executives and Hall of Fame members. The new inductees for the 24th Annual Induction Ceremony will be announced in January 2009. The ceremony will be held on April 4 at historic Public Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, the museum’s home, instead of at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York where 21 of the previous 23 events have taken place. To be eligible for nomination into the Rock Hall, an artist must have released its first single or album at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination.

Also, for the first time ever, tickets to the ceremony will be made available to the public.

I’ve never quite figured out what the criteria is for being elected to the Rock Hall of Fame. Personally, I still can’t believe that the Zombies or T-Rex or Tom Waits or MC5 or the Beastie Boys or Quincy Jones aren’t in the hall. What the hell, I might as well add Dr. John, Tim Buckley, Robert Wyatt/Soft Machine, Tim Hardin, Brigitte Fontaine, John Fahey, Pentangle, Jimmy Ricks and the Ravens, Tommy James, Television, Nico, Gabor Szabo, Richard and Mimi Farina, einstuerzende neubauten, Young Marble Giants, Pearls Before Swine, Pere Ubu, Link Wray, James Blood Ulmer, Throbbing Gristle, Sandy Bull, Derek Bailey, Tiny Grimes, Can, Nina Simone, Exuma, Lenny Breau, Sonny Sharrock…

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is pumped about the upcoming Bob Dylan Bootleg Series release. This one, Tell Tale Signs, will be volume 8 and is a two cd compilation of rare and unreleased tracks from 1989-2006. There's even gonna be a super special Dylanphile edition that contains 13 extra tracks, a 7" single and a book about Dylan's singles from all over the world. Crazy!

Anyway, thanks to my sweet friend Greg, my attention has been turned to one of the tracks from this upcoming release, an alternate version of the song "Mississippi" from Love and Theft. This song was originally recorded in an entirely different version for Time Out of Mind, but was cut from that album and eventually redone again for Love and Theft. Time Out of Mind is my favorite of Dylan's more recent albums, and it's kinda known to have been trimmed of what many claimed were its best tracks.

This unreleased version of "Mississippi" makes the song totally new again. It's incredible: stark and straightforward, making an already great song even better. This version gives the track and especially its hard-edged lyrics a rough majesty that was missing from the ultra-smooth Nashville-ized album version.It will be exciting to hear even more of these tracks on this new release in a few weeks! Tell Tale Signs comes out Oct 7 and in the meantime I'll be pulling out my more recently released Dylan albums and giving 'em a whirl in preparation.

These are the sort of weeks that I live for. There are so many new releases out this week that are getting me excited. This week could easily leave me content for the rest of the year. I am very much looking forward to a new EP from Antony & the Johnsons in a couple of weeks and the new Bloc Party next month, but it is really all about this week. There has to be something out this week that you will at least fall in love with a little bit. There are big new albums by Mogwai, Jenny Lewis, Brightblack Morning Light, Kings of Leon, and TV on the Radio. These guys have all been around before and are pretty consistent with their albums. If you like these bands you will probably like their new albums. The new TV on the Radio is awesome, and there are also some very exciting debut albums out this week. I have been absolutely obsessed with this Friendly Fires album for a month now. It is so good. I have been listening to it almost every day at work for the past couple of weeks. I think I love it as much as I love that Teenagers album from a couple of months ago. And by the way, I still love that Teenagers album. It just grows on me more every month and I think it is brilliant. Please listen to it and you will see. More on the Friendly Fires later. The Tough Alliance get their U.S. debut on Modular, New Chance. I also love this album. I just talked about their Swedish label mates, Air France, last week. They are also from Gothenberg, Sweden. It is a super fun electronic pop album. And there are two great albums out on Fat Cat this week-- very different albums. There is the debut album from Ten Kens. I really liked this album when I first heard it a couple of weeks ago, but it was not until early this week that I realized just how much I like it. It is more intense than the Friendly Fires and Tough Alliance -- it sounds like Sonic Youth a bit. It reminds me of something that I have heard before but also sounds like something completely new and unique. I can't quite put my finger on what exactly it sounds like, but it is comfortably familiar. And I finally have decided to get into classical music this week with the new Max Richter. It might not be you typical classical release but it is classical none the less.

So Morningside Circle. If you're a resident of Morningside Circle, let me know. For the most-voted-for neighborhood, it sure was hard to find out anything online. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry (despite having one for just about every other neighborhood in the city) and I found next-to-nothing online.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

November
November 1 Alien Nation
(Prepare Yourself for the 20th Anniversary!)November 8 The Stepfather
(Daddy's Home and He's Not Very Happy!)November 22 Waxwork
(20 Anniversary! More fun than a barrel of mummies!)November 29 Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon
(Now, when I say, "Who's da mastah?" you say, "Sho'nuff!")

The feel of rock and roll would have been a hell of a lot different without the input of New Orleans musicians, and at the top of that class was drummer Earl Palmer. He provided the distinctive backbeat for the seminal sound of rock starting with the likes of Fats Domino and Little Richard and Eddie Cochran. Earl Palmer died last Friday in his home in Banning after a long illness. He was 83.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, Palmer played on thousands of rock, jazz and pop music sessions, as well as on countless movie, television and commercial scores. In the late fifties and early sixties he played on such rock classic singles as Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin” and “Walking to New Orleans,” Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally," Ritchie Valens' “Donna” and "La Bamba," Sam Cooke's "You Send Me," Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and "I Hear You Knockin"' by Smiley Lewis. Legendary producer Phil Spector used him to build his Wall of Sound on such songs as “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'” by the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner's “River Deep, Mountain High.” Palmer’s work was rarely off the charts for two decades.

Palmer left New Orleans for Los Angeles in 1957 to work for Aladdin Records. His career as a session drummer included work with a who’s who of 20th century musical icons: Frank Sinatra, Rick Nelson, Ray Charles, Bobby Day, Don and Dewey, Jan and Dean, Larry Williams, Gene McDaniels, Bobby Darin, Dick Dale, Tim Hardin, Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, Roy Brown, Neil Diamond, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duane Eddy, Sceamin' Jay Hawkins, Barbara Streisand, Taj Mahal, David Axelrod, the Beachboys, Elvis Costello, Everly Brothers, the Mama and the Papas, the Monkees, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Johnny Otis, Thurston Harris, The Byrds, Marvin Gaye and Lloyd Price, just to name a very few. Not to mention the fact he recorded with practically every great New Orleans musician who ever tracked a song to vinyl, like Professor Longhair, Huey Piano Smith, Doctor John, James Booker, Dave Batholomew and Lee Allen.

A few days ago I was in the Amoeba Buyer's office when I noticed a retail bag with the artwork from the new Calexico album, Carried To Dust on it. It is the artwork of one of my favorite artists, Victor Gastelum, who I have written about in the past. After I stopped gawking at the bag and remarking how cool it was, I noticed there was something familiar about it. I went on with my work and didn’t think much of it after that.

Saturday was the opening of Victor’s new show, Xacto Mundo, at Overtones Gallery in Venice. I went to the opening party and it was really fun and nostalgic. I saw many old friends from back in the early 90’s from Long Beach & San Pedro, most that I hadn’t seen in a quite some time. After reminiscing about old times with that crew, I looked at that same piece, now framed and on the wall of the gallery. Then it hit me. It made me love the new artwork for Carried To Dust even more.

I took some shots of Victor’s pieces. Unfortunately, my crappy photography skills do not do the artwork justice, so go check it out yourself.

The first installment in the Guitar Hero series was released in 2005. The developers at Harmonix were obviously inspired by 1998’s Konami’s GuitarFreaks, in which players also use a guitar-shaped controller with colored fret buttons on the neck and a pick lever to score points playing along to rock music. That game never took off on the level of Guitar Hero though, partly because GuitarFreaks required players to shred along to the likes of Mutsuhiko Izumi, 桜井 敏郎, 小野秀幸, 前田尚紀 and Jimmy Weckl (né ジミー・ウェックル), who composed songs especially for the game. Guitar Hero's innovation was including 47 AOR songs by the likes of the Ramones, Deep Purple, umlaut-abusers Blue Öyster Cult and Motörhead -- songs that, whatever you think of them, are seared into your brain if you've ever drank a Mountain Dew, rode in a Z-28, watched a television commercial or shopped at Amoeba. That means even if you've heard "More Than a Feeling" 603,501 times more than you ever wanted, you'll have no problem playing along.

In 2006, RedOctane (the manufacturers of the guitar controllers) was purchased by Activision and Harmonix was bought by MTV. In 2007 Harmonix released, through Electronic Arts, Rock Band -- basically an expanded version of Guitar Hero which added other instruments, another innovation inspired by Konami’s games of the previous decade which followed up GuitarFreaks with DrumFreaks and KeyboardFreaks.

In celebration of 50 years of its Hot 100 chart, music industry’s Billboard Magazine has collected its Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. The list collects the top 100 songs from August 1958 through July 2008 -- and the songs' slots are allotted based on their actual performance on the weekly chart, with an inverse point system figuring into the ranking (i.e. weeks at No. 1 earn greater value than weeks at No. 100).

Lists of the greatest this, or best that, or most influential whatever always irk the crap out of me, though I am perpetually intrigued. Is Citizen Kane or Gone with the Wind the greatest film of all time? I don’t know, but an evening on the couch with some popcorn and a beer watching the Big Lebowski is a hell of a lot more fun. Is Jimmy Stewart the greatest movie star of all time? Of course not, it has to be Cary Grant or maybe Humphrey Bogart, at least that’s what I think, but according to the experts, I am wrong.

Anyway, Drum Roll please … the Number One Single of all time …Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”

Now I have to admit I was somewhat stunned to see “The Twist” up there up on top, all by itself. But then again, "The Twist" is the only song ever to go to #1 on two separate chart runs. The first time was on Sept. 19, 1960 for one week, but after Chubby Checker made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in late 1961, “The Twist” once again hit the spot, this time for two weeks starting on Jan. 13, 1962. It also set a record for the most weeks, 39, on the Hot 100 by a number one song, a record it held until UB40's “Red Red Wine” lasted 40 weeks in 1988.

According to an AP report this morning (Sept. 20), a plane crash in South Carolina carrying six people has left four of them -- two crew and two passengers, all unidentified in the report, dead and two passengers, drummer Travis Barker (Blink 182/Transplants) and DJ AM, "critically injured" in the Learjet crash late last night. The plane, just about to take off, went off the runway and crashed on a nearby road.

According to the AP report, "Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. She says the plane went off the runway and crashed on a nearby road. Hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits says Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were transported to a burn center in Augusta, Ga. Federal officials say two crew members and two passengers have been killed."

John Vanderslice is one of the Bay Area's most well known and most beloved musicians.He is also the proud owner of one of the few remaining all-analog studios, Tiny Telephone.John's a Barsuk recording artist and his most recent album is entitled Emerald City. He also happens to be one of my favorite people I've had the pleasure of meeting during my tenure at Amoeba. You can check out a sweet performance/interview with John from 2007 here on the Amoeba website, and you can also check out an mp3 of his song "White Dove" right here. Read on for our interview about reluctant piano lessons, greencards and the perfection of the Kinks.

Miss Ess: How did your passion for music develop when you were young?

John Vanderslice: My mom forced me into piano lessons when I was 6. God, I hated them!! Of course, years later, when I had absorbed some theory and could play a bit of piano I thanked my mom for starting me out. From there, it was a lot easier to move to piano and voice.

ME: I took piano from six as well and had much the same experience, minus the great success you’ve gone on to! When was the moment you realized you could make creating music your life and livelihood?

JV: After I started Tiny Telephone and we got a few clients, I realized that the combination of the studio and my touring income would allow me to leave my job (I was a bartender at Chez Panisse, a fantastic to place to work).

ME: What have you been listening to lately? Whose songs resonate with you?

The number one selling album at the Berkeley store this week is from the Bay Area's very own veteran political musician Michael Franti and his group Spearhead. Recorded in Kingston, Jamaica and produced by Sly and Robbie, this brand new full length titled All Rebel Rockers is the anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed Yell Fire!, released two years ago on Anti. This new album may not possess that same sense of urgency as its predecessor and hence, takes a little longer to get into, but All Rebel Rockers is still a very good album. (Yell Fire! is a hard one to top because it was so powerful a release.) Naturally, with Sly & Robbie at the controls, it has more of a reggae feel than the other genres it incorporates (mainly hip-hop and soul).

Digging in the Bay Area archives today I came across this Oakland Rap Top Ten chart from eighteen years ago. The list is a subjective singles/songs based chart that I had originally tallied based on a combination of artists I was writing about at the time for my Bay Area column in Source magazine and on radio airplay on the weekly Sunday hip-hop radio show (Hip Hop Slam) I did at the time. The show, on KALX 90.7FM, was co-hosted along with G-Spot (now heard on KPFA late Saturday nights) in addition to, invariably, a ton of guests (a great many of them Bay Area) rolling through the Berkeley studios each week, including all of the artists in this top ten. Note that back circa 1990, DJs and writers generally used the word "rap" to describe these artists rather than "hip-hop," even though it was recognized as a part of hip-hop.

Dwarf planets are objects with sufficient mass to assume a roughly spherical shape but yet too small to get picked for the starting lineup in the solar tee-ball match. There are currently four planets designated as dwarf planets. Before 2006 they were also known as minor planets, planetoids and (my favorite) subplanets.

Although there are currently only four designated dwarf planets, there are at least 41 known objects which may qualify when we get around to it. And when the Kuiper belt is fully-explored, there may turn out to be another 200. Beyond that there may be another 2000 subplanets in our solar system.

Ceres is named after the Roman goddess of cereals (as in grasses cultivated for their edible parts and not as in the milky bowls of breakfast candy eaten by toddlers and people living in dorms), abundance, and motherly love. She was both the sister and wife of Jupiter. Her worship was adopted by the Romans in 496 BCE, during a particularly severe famine. Her followers were mostly plebes who controlled the grain game in antiquity. For some reason, their rites included tying burning sticks to fox's tails.

The original name for the planetoid was Ceres Ferdinandea but that got shot down as not everyone was so keen on brown-nosing Spanish royalty. The dwarf planet is the smallest of the currently designated subplanets. It was actually discovered way back in 1801 by Giuseppie Piazzi who wrote, "since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet." Even further back, Johann Elert Bode, in 1768, had suggested that there may be a planet between Mars and Earth. And lo, Ceres is situated within the asteroid belt.

I love it when musicians write something new in response to another artist's song. One great artist inspiring another is what makes the world go round, in a way, and it's fun to find examples of artists reacting to one another's work.

One of the more famous examples of this is "Sweet Home Alabama," Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 response to Neil Young's earlier songs slamming stereotypical Southern racism, "Southern Man" and "Alabama." Neil apparently loved it when he heard his name in the track, as the bands were friendly:

"Well I heard Mr Young sing about it
Well I heard old Neil put her down
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
Southern Man don't need him around anyhow..."

Apparently Neil Young is extremely inspiring, because the other song that springs to mind as being written in response to a great song is Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game," which she wrote for Neil after hearing his "Sugar Mountain." Both songs are about growing older and youth slipping by. The two songwriters met back in 1964, the same year 19 year old Neil wrote "Sugar Mountain," which contains the line "You can't be 20/on Sugar Mountain." Joni's response in "The Circle Game": "So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty/ Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true/There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty/Before the last revolving year is through."

My love for Sweden just continues to grow this year. I really might need to go move there. I will wait and see how this election turns out first. I am keeping my fingers crossed and I just know election day is going to be a crazy exciting day. I am putting some faith in the American people that they will see how crazy this Palin lady is... So hopefully I will stay in this country, but Sweden might be the place to go if I need to. The music there just keeps impressing me. Air Francefrom Gothenburg, Sweden have just put out a new EP called "No Way Down." It is on the label Sincerely Yours, which also put out the great album by The Tough Alliance. The Tough Alliance is getting some domestic love soon and will hopefully reach a wider audience. Gothenburg is the home of many of my recent favorites -- in addition to The Tough Alliance and Air France, Jens Lekman, Studio, The Electric Pop Group, and Love Is All live there. I might just have to investigate all the other bands from Gothenburg that I have not heard yet. My new favorite band might just be hiding in there, waiting for me to finally discover.

This new Air France EP is brilliant, but it is not the kind of album that will hit you in the face right away. It is sort of mellow and pretty. In their very short Wikipedia description they are described as "post-rave bliss, beach foam pop, and balearic disco." I might have to update this definition a bit, but it does sort of make sense. It reminds me of some of the tracks on the Studio album. You need to turn the songs up a bit to fully experience them. Headphones are always best for this type of music, or the privacy of your own car if you live in Los Angeles. The songs make you feel like you are floating or dreaming. Albums like these should really be used for therapy. This EP includes six short songs. They will satisfy me for a bit but I know I will want more soon. A complete album will hopefully not be that far away. The album is sort of a combination of an Orb or Future Sound of London album combined with some band like Saint Etienne or The Pale Saints. Some of the songs are just instrumental dancey mellow tracks while others are British 90's pop kind of songs over more dancey beats. Don't be surprised to hear some bird sounds and random samples throughout the album. This is what probably makes it sound a bit beach like, but not day time surf style beachy -- more like the beach music you would hear at sunset or in the middle of the night.

Within about 2 seconds of hearing "Crucify" I was feeling giddy, taken back to another time and place, but also hearing the songs in a new light since it'd been so long. Little Earthquakes is an incredible record. Between the raw lyrics and the acoustic piano, when it came out in 1992 it was like nothing else of its time. I feel like it sliced through all the other overblown stuff out there (like Michael Jackson and Guns N Roses), utterly idiosyncratic, and then managed to float alone above it all. I don't know how I'd forgotten how delicious a record it is. Walking down the street with Tori whispering and crooning in my ear, simultaneously brutally honest and seductive, the entire timbre of my day changed. It's that kind of album.

I remember reading Tori was influenced by Joni Mitchell's Blue, and now, years later, having become a fan of that record as well, I can really see what she meant. Both Little Earthquakes and Blue are extraordinarily confessional, sincere and frank. And favorites of mine.

When I first learned that Masaki Batoh, enigmatic frontman of the wondrously magical avant-psych band Ghost, and Swedish-born Helena Espvall, vocalist, guitarist and cellist of the equally magical folk-rock outfit Espers, were to release a record of their collaborative efforts, a wave of excitement swept me out of my shoes and into a frenzy of inspired musings that lead to an impulse purchase of a bottle of Framboise Lambic. After many repeat listenings of Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh, their simply self-titled release, I can safely say that not only does the record pair well with the sweet, frothy drink, but also complements those early Halloween decoration displays that are beginning to pop up all over town. The record and the drink spurred a flip through my battered old D&D Monster’s Compendium which led me to conjure a mental picture of a romantic tapestry woven by two modern day minstrels who, after recognizing their great esteem for one another, slipped away from their bands’ respective gypsy caravans silently in the night, running away together to the far reaches of the northern wilderness, making beautiful music together all the way.

Since they formed 28 years ago, UK group Chumbawumba may have released a ton of music covering many styles (and under various band lineups) but it is their 1997 breakout hit single "Tubthumping" (video above) with its infectious chorus ("I get knocked down/But I get up again") that they will probably always be best known for, even though it was atypical of all the other music that this anarchist band had recorded. Regardless, this single was unavoidable on the radio eleven years ago when it was a hit both in Britain and around the world. It went to #2 on the UK pop charts and #6 in the USA in 1997.

Anyway, for some reason this song and its infectious chorus popped into my head the other day and refused to leave. I kept humming its refrain over and over - I get knocked down/But I get up again/You're never going to/Keep me down -- so much so that I had to go back to re-listen to it, to so see if it stood the test of time, if it sounded as good as I remembered first time around back in '97. And having just listened to it again now, I gotta say that, while it is still a really good pop song, that it doesn't really stand the test of time to these ears. Maybe I just heard it one too many times back in '97.

In my research I did learn that the song was not only a single and album (Tubthumper) track for the band but that it has been included on several compilations, including on a volume of the phenomenally popular Now That's What I Call Music pop-hit compilation series, and also on eight movie soundtracks including Home Alone 3, In God's Hands, Senseless, Air Bud 2, Dirty Work, Varsity Blues, and Joe Somebody. Additionally, it's been featured in several video games, including EA Sports' World Cup 98, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX in 1999, and in Nintendo's Donkey Konga in 2004.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

One of the greatest things about living in the Bay Area, for me anyway, is the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival that happens the first weekend of every October in Golden Gate Park, thanks to rich guy and roots music fan Warren Hellman, who pays for the whole thing. Here's a good article from a couple of years back that was in the Chronicle about just what Mr. Hellman is doing.

At the festival over the years I've seen Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and so many more, including Dolly Parton, which was literally one of the highlights of my life! Even if it's freezing outside, thousands of people gather in the park to hear the music.

This year's festival takes place Oct 3/4/5 and is lining up to be as strong as always, with seasoned performers such as Hazel Dickens, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Asleep at the Wheel, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark, and Richard Thompson and newcomers like Bonnie Prince Billy, Iron & Wine, Pegi Young and...MC Hammer!? (Well, they do call it "Hardly Strictly!") You can check out the schedule right here. It really is not to be missed. Did I mention that it's all FREE?!

Published this week online on his ZSpace page, the following timely essay This is Your Nation on White Privilege was written by Tim Wise, who is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008) and Speaking Treason Fluently, which will be published later this month, also by Soft Skull.
Thanks to Wise and his publishers for permission in reprinting this essay on white privilege in America today. For more information on the author visit timwise.org.

This Is Your Nation on White Privilege by Tim Wise

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug. White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

If I haven’t mentioned it before at least a dozen times or so, I’m a third generation native Angelino, and obviously a product of the television generation whose earliest childhood memories inevitably revolve around three primary sounds: Earl Shreib commercials - "I'll paint any car, any color, for only twenty-nine ninety-five! Riiiiiiight!”, the legendary voice of Dodger baseball sportscaster Vin Scully and the booming, theatrically stentorian voice of George Putnam, the pioneering television news anchorman and right wing commentator who was a mainstay of Los Angeles news broadcasting for many a decade. Putnam died last Friday morning at Chino Valley Medical Center. He was 94.

When I was kid my grandfather had his television on constantly and his nightly vigil was Putnam’s newscast. My grandfather ate it all up, every right wing paranoid dramatic declaration; he absolutely trusted everything Putnam said. And of course, Putnam was one of the most influential commentators of the era.

In pop-cultural history he is most fondly remembered as the inspiration for fictional newscaster Ted Baxter, Ted Knight's windbag of a character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Putnam was also famous for his annual Rose Parade ride on his silver-saddled palomino for almost 50 years. In fact I believe it never rained when he rode in the parade … talk about a man with connections!

Putnam began his broadcast career on a Minneapolis radio station in 1934, moved to New York in the 1940’s. In late 1951 he was hired at KTTV, the independent station then owned by Times-Mirror Co., which also owned the Los Angeles Times. Putnam quickly became a dominant force in Los Angeles TV news. The winner of three Emmy Awards, six California Associated Press Television and Radio Assn. awards and more than 300 other honors, at one point he was reportedly the highest-rated and highest-paid TV news anchor on the Los Angeles’ airwaves. In the mid 1960s, Putnam moved to KTLA Channel 5. Also, Putnam was briefly a co-host on the political news talk show Both Sides Now with comedian Mort Sahl.

There's a long tradition of rainbow colorband labels in the record industry. Capitol, Liberty & VJ all had similar designs in the early sixties. Decca had its famous colorbar labels labels of the 60's and MCA had its rainbow label design that I covered in an earlier blog. Here's a gallery of other, lesser known rainbow themed labels sure to please the eye...

September 15th to October 15th is officially recognized as Hispanic Heritage Monthin the USA.The dates of the observance were chosen due to the timing of El Grito, the "cry" that brought the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua's independence (followed closely by Mexico and Chile.).

Some fellows celebrating "El Grito"

"Hispanic" vs. "Latino"

I suppose it's kind of interesting that whoever named the month chose the term "Hispanic" instead of, say, "Latino." Hispanic sounds old-fashioned to me, but then again, I know people younger than me who refer to themselves as just that. I still think it's like calling February "Colored History Month" or May being "Oriental Heritage month." The government's choice of "Hispanic" probably owes to the fact that the term "Latino" was in less common usage forty years ago when the observance was instigated by Lyndon B. Johnson (initially as Hispanic Heritage Week). Both terms are considered offensive by some indigenists since they disappropriate Native Americans from their origins and languages by defining people with sometimes no European ancestry with Eurocentric terms.

In the number one slot of this week's Jameoeblog Top Ten (a subjective, song based chart) is talented and funny Vancouver, BC (by way of Portland, OR which he lately calls as his home base) rapper Josh Martinez. "All Rapped Out" is the opening song off his great fifth album, which hits Amoeba tomorrow, The World's Famous Sex Buffet on his own Camobear record label. The prolific artist has been churning out releases for the past decade, even finding time to form two bands along the way: the Pissed Off Wild and the Chicharones.

The novelist, essayist, humorist, and educator, David Foster Wallace, best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, was found dead Friday night at his home in Claremont. His wife, Karen Green, discovered that Wallace had hanged himself when she returned home on Friday, September 12. He was 46.

Wallace won a cult following from the very start of his literary career with his darkly humorous and ironic wit. His first novel was published in 1987, The Broom of the System, but it was his 1996 novel, Infinite Jest, which shot him to the top of the literary world with its sprawling, complex and ambitious nonlinear plot that ran 1,079 pages.

Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, Feb. 21, 1962, but was raised in Illinois, where his father taught philosophy at the University of Illinois and his mother taught English at the local community college.

He attended Amherst College, majoring in philosophy before switching his attention to creative writing. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1985, turning his senior thesis into the basis for The Broom of the System.

Since 2002, when he was named the first Roy E. Disney professor of creative writing, he had taught at Pomona College.

I wish to bring back to mind my past foulness and the carnal corruptions of my soul. This is not because I love them, but that I may love you, my God. [..] In the bitterness of my remembrance, I tread again my most evil ways, so that you may grow sweet to me, O sweetness that never fails, O sweetness happy and enduring, which gathers me together again from that disordered state in which I lay in shattered pieces, wherein, turned away from you, the one, I spent myself upon the many. For in my youth, I burned to get my fill of hellish things. I dared to run wild in different darksome ways of love. My comeliness wasted away. I stank in your eyes, but I was pleasing to myself and I desired to be pleasing to the eyes of men. -- The Depths of Vice from The Sixteenth Year of The Confessions of St. Augustine

I've always been something of a closet Augustinian, believing sin the default human condition. If he would've just left out all that God stuff I'd be more willing to come out of the closet. Nevertheless, his notion that being good is an act of will against wordly temptation seems right to me. In a capitalist democracy, giving in has always been an easier route to material success than acts of resistance. Obama wouldn't be America's first ("serious") post-racial candidate if the majority thought he'd tackle racial injustice in any substantive manner. One doesn't rise through the business ranks by being an agent of moral change, making the business work better for the employees. The only change that's allowed is that of efficiency, streamlining the workers' output in accordance to the demands of the employer. You don't achieve power by disposing of the cultural rules, but by learning them, incorporating them and making them work for you while you actually work for them. As Foucault pointed out -- and the Frankfurt School before him -- power is everywhere and nowhere in particular.

Since power is theoretically dispersed to the masses in a democratic system where the have-nots will always outnumber the haves, it becomes necessary for mass desire to be manufactured such that the status quo is believed by the people to be their will, and not something being forced upon them from the outside. This keeps things from changing, or not changing, too fast, so that the small ratio of dominant to the dominated can remain fairly static over time. That's why 1984 has never been a wholly convincing metaphor for the modern Western democracy. People would vote out Big Brother if he were seen to symbolically conflict with their democratic and other structuring beliefs ("don't need no outsider telling me what to do"). However, his ideas of control might work if the people can be convinced that those ideas are their own. In fact, Orwellian totalitarianism began when democracy ended, but a more pressing concern for modern democracy is its own despotic fault-line.

When you got a mixtape you could not wait to throw it in the cassette player. Unmarked or a work of art, it didnʼt matter. There was gold in those tapes. There was a message. Sometimes there wasnʼt.

(Didnʼt everyone have a Krazy Mix?) Random songs gleaned from the radio, records, and other cassettes always said at least, listen to this! Inherently it was about the music. Sometimes slow hands pressed "record" too late or too early or there were the random ambient sounds of the TV interrupting Motorhead.

Then there were those tapes given to or received from crushes. Songs with subtle or not so subtle messages would attempt to grab your attention and then your heart.

It does sound old to lament the loss of mixtape culture. I think what I miss is the care and attention that friendships used to naturally have. Demands of relationships, bills, and the heavy burden of the future gradually erode the time and space that one can give to friendships. Mixtapes are a sentimental look at a time where what mattered was putting together an awesome tape full of songs and giving it away.

Amoeba Music Hollywood Hip-Hop Top FIve 09:12:081) The GameLAX (Geffen/Interscope)

2) Young Jeezy The Recession (Def Jam)

3) The Game LAX (deluxe edition) (Geffen/Interscope)

4) GZA Pro Tools (Baby Grande)

5) Lil WayneTha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal)

Special thanks to Marques at the Hollywood Amoeba Music for this week's top five hip-hop albums, which includes hometown artist The Game's new album LAX twice. "The number three on the chart version of The Game is the deluxe edition of LAX which has three extra songs on it," notes Marques of the second (more limited pressing) version of the album that also costs a bit more to purchase. Other chart entries include the recently released Young Jeezy album The Recession, Lil Wayne's current hot seller Tha Carter III (sure to be on many year end lists), and the latest from GZA, Pro Tools. Meanwhile GZA's Wu-Tang buddy RZA (who supplies some production on the guest heavy Pro Tools album) will be one of the many performers at the upcoming We The People Music, Arts, and Cultural Festival happening at Los Angeles State Historic Park (1245 N. Spring Street) on Saturday, September 27th. Others scheduled to perform include EPMD (pictured), Fishbone, DJ Premier, Les Claypool, Suicidal Tendencies, Z-Trip, Dilated Peoples, Eeek-A-Mouse, Barrington Levy, Bassnectar, Free The Robots, B-Side Players, Roots of Creation, Markus James, Look Daggers, Tom Morello, and Flying Lotus, whose recent Warp release Los Angeles is one of the best albums of 2008.

Growing up a latch-key kid in the mid-eighties meant that I spent many hours every day after school in front of the tv. Adding up all that time well spent I estimate that had my pre-adolescent life been stripped of my cable network companions I might be a very different person indeed. That said, I’d like to direct a hearty “thank you” to Shelley Duvall and her quality family program Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre for instilling in me a healthy dose of common sense and propriety by way of deliciously thrilling fantasy entertainment. I’ll never forget my first viewing of this stellar program: Rapunzel starring Duvall herself as the o’er tressed damsel and Jeff Bridges displaying raw and regal sexual appeal in his portrayal as the ill-fated prince who happens upon Rapunzel’s secluded tower. I know that I squandered countless innocent daydreams pondering the exemplary portrait of Bridges’ male beauty while also wondering what the heck chocolate dipped radishes might taste like and why pregnant women risked the lives of their loved ones to procure them. I began to seriously consider future career paths ripe for the treading as a witch or princess or mermaid. Thanks to cable tv, a VHS recorder and an insatiable appetite for all things fantastical, my life took on a weekly cycle of significance, punctuated at the ends by my favorite show.

The punchline includes the phrase "...an amoeba with a blog?" Seinfeld, or "Jer" as I call him, is a loyal reader of the Amoeba Blog. ...and since I know he's among the dozens of loyal fans out there I just wanted to say "Thanks, B."

And now, if I may, I'll scratch your back, Mr. S...

Jerome Allen (as he used to be known) was born in Massapequa, a hamlet which was also home to Steve Guttenberg, the Baldwin Brothers, Neil Diamond and Twisted Sister's Dee Snider.

His big break came on the television series, Benson, as a mail delivery boy.

Throughout the '80s he appeared on late night chat shows peddling his humorous observations that invariably began with the question, "What is the deal with..." Allow me to have a go... "What is the deal with sporks? Are they spoons or forks? And what's the deal with skorts?" Guaranteed to bring the house down!

He became known for his influential sartorial sense as much as his humor. Frequently he would wear a billowing denim longsleeve with jeans, a suit jacket and high-top sneakers --a look which says, "I mean business, but I'm a kid at heart!" His hair, swept back and bushy, was de riguer for comics of the '80s, from Richard Lewis to the aforementioned Guttenberg and loads of others.

In 1984, he landed a part in the comedy The Ratings Game (available exclusively on VHS).

I can't believe that it has already been a year since the last Okkervil River album. The last album came out last August in 2007 and it seems to somehow already be September in 2008. I was going through my big Okkervil River phase back then and really liked their last album,The Stage Names. I talked about it in my blog last year and you can read it here. There's something totally comforting about moving back to the part of the world you grew up in. Now I know why people stay in the same small town they grew up in for their entire life. I can't imagine living in a small town and still living in a small town, but I guess that is because I grew up in a very large town-- a large city in fact! If you asked me a year ago if I thought that I would ever end up back in Hollywood I would have never thought it possible, but here I am back in Hollywood in the middle of summer. It has been over 6 months now so I think I am starting to feel at home again. I may not totally be in love with the summer weather in Los Angeles, but it does feel normal and comforting. My body is accustomed to it. So back to Okkervil River...The new album out this week is called The Stand Ins. I quickly fell in love with that last album and this new one is just sort of an extension of that last one. It could have easily been recorded at the same time -- one year is really not that long of a time. The artwork is still fantastic. The lyrics are still great and make you feel like you are listening to a fantastic book on tape. The album is not boring and drawn out. It just has that literary feel to it.

In the late 50's Riverside Records was a giant in the Jazz world. Cranking out some of the best albums of the era, they were home to Monk, Cannonball, Bill Evans and many more. At that time, one of their subsidiaries was Washington Records. Not focused on jazz at all, this label seems to have been used to issue classical, ethnic & traditional folk records-- many of which had been previous available as Riverside issues. This series was geared towards educators and probably filled out the curriculum for many elementary schools. Here's an 8 part series of traditional folk...

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

Now that fall is suddenly approaching, I started to reflect on the summer that is coming to a close. This summer was one of my busiest in some time. It seemed that there was always something to do and not enough hours in the day to do it all. Over the summer I played in two bands, did some guest spots on the radio, finished an album and played way too many DJ gigs. All the while, I went to work full time and tried not to fall behind on the Amoeba blog (Which I did…sorry.). With the economy being what it is, everyone is out there hustling. The days of making art for art’s sake are a luxury most cannot afford. Many of us are surviving on every penny we make outside of the nine to five. Extra money goes straight into the gas tank or to food rather than buying records or getting new equipment, where it had gone in the past. Still, I can’t really complain because most people who have two jobs do a gig that they don't enjoy and my work I consider to be fun and always a learning experience. Nevertheless, I could use a vacation.

These are some highlights from my summer. Not all of it was work related. Some of it was a welcomed relief from my hectic schedule.

1.Worldwide Underground
(Sundays @ Amoeba during July & August)

For a few years I had the idea of having a World Music DJ series at Amoeba. One day I proposed the idea to Jim & Karen, our bosses here at Amoeba Hollywood, and to my surprise they liked the idea. I was the “curator” so to speak, and I got together some of L.A.’s best club DJ’s to play the music that they love but don’t necessarily get to play at the clubs. The DJ’s that rocked our turntables were Anthony Valadez (KCRW), Jeremy Sole (KCRW, Afro Funke), Sloe Poke (Descarga, Sonido), Lady Sha (Lioness LA), Nnamdi (From KPFK’s Radio Afrodicia), Coleman (Firecracker), Chico Sonido (Mas Exitos), Drez (way too many clubs to list!), Rani D (Soul In The Park) & all the way from England, Andy Votel (B-Music, Finders Keepers). Each DJ brought their own flavor to the mix; from Afro-Beat to Zouk, the DJ’s took us around the musical globe. I also got to play a couple of sets as well. It was an honor to be associated with the DJ’s I listed above. Hopefully we will get to do it again in the years to come. Thanks to Jim & Karen, Jayme, my sound person extraordinaire and my good friend Sasha Ali, who pushed me in the right direction by getting phone numbers of some of the DJ's I didn't know personally.

One hundred years ago today the weirdly brilliant American composer and one of the pioneers of contemporary experimental and electronic music, Raymond Scott, was born. While his name may not be instantly recognizable, his musical compositions are, and though Scott never actually composed music specifically for cartoons, most anybody -- any age, anywhere -- who ever watched an old Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunnycartoon or a Ren & Stimpy episode or even the Simpsons or Animaniacs would recognize some of Scott’s extraordinary pieces like “Powerhouse” and “The Toy Trumpet.”

He was born Harry Warnow in Brooklyn, New York, September 10, 1908. After graduating from The Institute of Musical Art (later renamed Juilliard) in 1931, Scott was hired as a staff pianist with the CBS Radio network orchestra conducted by his brother Mark Warnow; he took the name Raymond Scott specifically to avoid talk of nepotism. Scott soon began presenting his own bizarre and quirky compositions like “Confusion Among a Fleet of Taxicabs Upon Meeting with a Fare.” By the mid 1930’s these unexpected eccentricities started creeping into the CBS Radio broadcasts and the American subconscious. For the next four decades he would go on to record for several major labels including Brunswick, Columbia, Decca, MGM, Coral, Everest, and Top Rank. He always managed to sell records, even with such Duchampian-like song titles such as "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals", "Reckless Night on Board an Oceanliner", "New Year's Eve in a Haunted House", "Bumpy Weather Over Newark", "Celebration on the Planet Mars", and "Siberian Sleighride".

The musically eclectic arranger, composer, and producer Hector Zazou, widely known for his collaborative work with such artists as Brian Eno, Bjork, Siouxsie Sioux, Peter Gabriel, Mark Isham, Nico, John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and David Sylvian of Japan, died this week.

He was just 60 years old. Cause of death has not yet been made public, although it was reported by NME magazine that he had "fallen seriously ill" earlier this year. The French artist effortlessly cross-pollinated musical boundaries from electronic to rock, pop & folk, and into a myriad of different world music and classical styles.

Zazou leaves behind a deep back catalog of recordings that include the soon to be released album In the House of Mirrors (Crammed), an electronic tinged classical Asian composition that showcased the Indian-Uzbekestani four-piece Swara. Other releases by Zazou during his prolific career include 1979's La Perversita and 1994's atmospheric & eclectic Songs from the Cold Seas (titled in his native France as Chansons des mers froides) that epitomized the artist's knack for melding various artists and their respective divergent sensibilities -- somehow making it all sound like it was meant to go together in the first place.

Below are a couple of videos of the artist's music, including "The Seven Joys of the Virgin Mary" from the CD Lights In The Dark and "IS" by Hector Zazou featuring British born singer Katiejane Garside, who is featured on the Hector Zazou's last released album, Corps électriques, which came out in January this year.

Following much speculation, Matador Records has confirmed that they will be releasing the next brand new Sonic Youth album next year. The new studio album from Sonic Youth, the band's sixteenth, follows the legendary rock group's fulfilling their contractual obligations to the Universal Music Group.

According to the press statement by Matador, the New York label says it values "the opportunity to work in partnership with a group who've made such a profound impact on our roster/hometown/collective consciousness was one to jump at. Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley will commence recording the new Sonic Youth LP/CD this autumn and we look forward to sharing further details in the very near future."

For more information about the 31-year old group, including their traveling museum exhibition and their recently self-released CD (pictured left), check SonicYouth.com and also Matador Records' site.

Don't play with your food...unless you are playing a song. I never knew that veggies could be so much fun, musical fun that is, until I was turned onto Japanese vegetable musician Helta3's YouTube account that showcased a wide variety of his homemade & played veggie wind instruments.

Helta3 is the man when it comes to making veggies into instruments, as a recent YouTube search of "vegetable instruments" proved. Some of these videos are below, including the very first of the five, which is a general introduction to handmade veggie musical instruments by Helta3. In it he demonstrates playing such veggies as asparagus, cucumber, paprika, broccoli, and carrots -- which he plays as both an ocarina and as a panpipe.

Check out Helta3's YouTube page to see him make and/or play other veggie instruments such as a radish and a cabbage, also as an ocarina (who would have thunk?). By the way, the exact definition of an ocarina, as per the Webster dictionary, is "a simple wind instrument typically having an oval body with finger holes and a projecting mouthpiece." The other veggie musical instruments videos below include a vegetable orchestra, two funny guys playing veggies, musical foods, and a how-to guide to make your own carrot ocarina.

Therein you will hear Žižek discuss, among other things, The Dark Knight (ideology at its purest), violent video games (he lets his 7 year old play Grand Theft Auto, but is wary of Disney films), rape (why masochists would be the most traumatized), Hugo Chavez (how authoritarians are as pragmatic as everyone else), the mystery of Stalinism (why Stalinists terrorized themselves), the honesty of fascism (it kept its promise to kill minorities), and so on and so on. Theory comes out as flakes on the corners of his mouth -- philosophy as a 3-day meth binge.

Thanks to Luis in the hip-hop section at Amoeba Music, San Francisco for this week's Top Five chart. The top slot belongs to the brand new release from Young Jeezy, The Recession, which hit Amoeba shelves on Tuesday this week. This is the third Jeezy album, following 2005's Lets Get It: Thug Motivation 101 and 2006's The Inspiration. Although the title The Recession might imply that the record would be all about the US economy (interest rates/foreclosures etc.), it only very, very briefly tackles the US economy at large. Instead, it concentrates more specifically on hood economics, i.e., drug dealing. Hence, The Recession, over some great beats, is brimming with (yawn) street tales of making cash and selling 'caine and the glorified day-to-day trials and tribulations of a gangsta.

"All I got to my name is two bricks and one felony," raps Atlanta native Jeezy in his famous husky voiced, dirty south flow on the track "Crazy World" -- one of many detailing the struggles of the hustler lifestyle which, personally, I find tired and played out at this stage in the game. I mean is Young Jeezy keeping really real and rapping about his life as it really, or is he just trying to sell the most CDs? Does Jeezy really have to slang drugs on the corner after all his success in the rap music biz? Or is he just fronting by making up these played-out, over-romanticized drug dealing tales, geared for the target gullible white rap consumer? This is music manufactured for the wallet more than from the heart. With that said, I did enjoy most of the production, and also the album's few guests, including NaS, who upstaged his host here. I guess it's not so much the topic of gangsta but more in how an artist retells a story we've heard a million times already.

According to a wide spectrum of gay music experts quizzed by Out Magazine, these are the top 100 gayest albums of all time. To compile this Top 100 Gayest Albums of All Time, Out Magazine polled more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 albums that left the most indelible impressions on their lives.Out writes in this new report that "After receiving responses from Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray, Candis Cayne, Perez Hilton, Nate Berkus, Jake Shears, John Cameron Mitchell, Wilson Cruz, Justin Bond, Darren Hayes, Junior Vasquez, Bruce Vilanch, Janis Ian, the Cliks, Ari Gold, Holly Johnson, and a slew of others, we tallied the results to determine our top-100 list."

This is the second of the two part Amoeblogs remembering long-defunct Berkeley music store Leopold Records. Part 1 focused on the Leopold's Amoeba connection, while this one is about the hip-hop history of the store. Included are an interview with former Leopold rap buyer Daria Kelly and an essay by Amoeba Brady who, like many, worked there before joining Amoeba. I highly recommend you read both of these insightful windows to another time in Bay Area music history. Also included in this Remembering Leopold Amoeblog is one of the final Bay Area Top Ten charts issued by the store before it closed, from early 1996, and a video of Saafir performing live at the store from late 1994.

The live Saafir performance is of "Just Riden" (video above), the song originally from the artist's Boxcar Sessions album released in September 1994 on Qwest/Warner Brothers. The footage iis from an in-store that was technically an "out-store," since the Oakalnd emcee did it right outside the store doors of Leopold's on Durant in Berkeley, CA.

Look closely at the video above for the quick crowd camera pan and you will see Del (in Hiero T-shirt) puffing happily on what looks like a blunt. Around that same time in East Bay hip-hop history you would usually find members of Saafir's extended rap family Hobo Junction right outside Leopold and around the streets of Berkeley selling, or as they called it "dirt hustlin,'" their lo-fi but tight homemade rap tapes.

Tonight and tomorrow night at 8PM (Friday/Saturday, Sept. 5/6th) at the Brava Theater at 2789 24th Street in San Francisco will be the third year of one of the most envelope pushing performance projects tackling the topic of sexuality and disability:Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility.

Amoeblog caught up with Patricia Berne, the director of Sins Invalid, to ask her about this most unique performance project and this weekend's two performances that include singer/songwriter Nomy Lamm.

AMOEBLOG: For those who know nothing about Sins Invalid, can you describe what it is?

PATRICIA BERNE: Sins Invalid is a performance project which incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing on artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalized. Our performance work explores the themes of sexuality, embodiment and the disabled body. Conceived and led by disabled people of color, we develop and present cutting-edge work where normative paradigms of "normal" and "sexy" are challenged, offering instead a vision of beauty and sexuality inclusive of all individuals and communities. We define disability broadly to include people with physical impairments, who are a sensory minority, people with emotional disabilities, people with cognitive challenges, those with chronic/severe illness, individuals who identify as disabled due to intersex conditions or gender variance, and others who may identify as disabled because their bodies do not conform to society's notions of "normal" or able-bodied.AMOEBLOG: What are the most common misconceptions on the topic of sexuality and disability?

During the Colonial era, cinematic images of Africa and its people were entirely the work of Western filmmakers. The Tarzan movies, African Queen, King Solomon's Minesand others were usually filmed on soundstages half a world away from Africa and made little to no effort toward authenticity, instead trading in exoticism aimed primarily at exploiting Western tastes.

Senegal gained its independence from France in 1960. Like most West African countries, Senegal is highly diverse. The Wolof, Peul, Halpulaaren, Serer, Lebou, Jola, Mandinka, Moors, Soninke and Bassari are all long established in the country. There are also substantial populations of French, Mauritanians, LebaneseandVietnamese. Three years after independence, the first Senegalese film was made by Ousmane Sembene titled L'empire sonhrai, which would set the standards for a uniquely African cinematic language that would establish Senegal as the capital of African Cinema.

Any longtime Bay Area music fan knew and loved the long gone Berkeley record store Leopold Records (circa '68 - '96), which used to be located at 2518 Durant in the block above Telegraph Ave. and down from Bowditch Street. Back in the day you could go spend lots of time (and money) as the hours slipped past and you got lost digging in their never-ending rows of music, invariably getting assistance along the way from the store's dedicated staff, who really knew their stuff and were more than happy to share that musical knowledge.

At one point, Oakland emcee Del tha Funkee Homosapien even worked at Leopold! The store, for Bay Area rap fans, was the number one destination when you wanted to get the latest hip-hop releases. The store also had many artists stop by, including MC Lyte (pictured above) and Saafir, who once did an in-store (well, technically an out-store, since it was right outside the building) at Leopold. (See video clip in the second part of this two-part Leopold Records' Amoeblog.) Scroll down below to see Joan Baez at a Leopold instore performance from 1993, singing a version of "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" that includes, much to the crowd's delight, a spot-on imitation of Bob Dylan. Michael Jackson even did made an appearance at Leopold's back in his heyday.

Leopold's many former employees went on to other music industry positions: former rap buyer Daria Kelly now works at Six Degrees Records in San Francisco. Read her Amoeblog interview recalling Leopold Records' role in the hip-hop community in Part II of this Amoeblog remembering Leopold's.
Many Amoeba Music employees also worked at Leopold's and consequently, it seems, have carried over that tradition of truly caring about the business that they are in. Amoeba Music's Karen P (in pics both above & below) is one of those people who used to be a part of Leopold's. I recently asked her if she thought there was a connection between her old place of employment and Amoeba Music. She replied: "Yes, there definitely is a connection, both philosophically and in spirit. Part of it might be that much of the beginning (and even current) Amoeba staff started at Leopold's." Karen listed some of those individuals as Mark Beaver (in B&W picture below), Craig Bishop, Lisa Loomis, Stacy Young, Roxanne (in MC Lyte pic), Barbara Ballesteros, and Lynne Brady. (Read Amoebite Lynne Brady's wonderful stream-of-consciousness rap recollections of Leopold in Part II of this Amoeblog -- to be posted tomorrow, Friday.)

Walter Tetley, who died today back in 1975, was a renowned child impersonator from radio's golden age. He featured regularly on the Great Gildersleeve and the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show --two programs unlikely to result in even a flicker of recognition from anyone younger than 60, but very popular in their day. He also appeared on Fibber McGee and Molly, The Jell-O Program starring Jack Benny, The Pepsodent Show with Bob Hope, Suspense, The Burns & Allen Show and other radio programs.

The details of Walter's personal life are obscure and mostly drawn from one biography (For Corn's Sake), which was primarily based on his thorough scrapbooks. Walter was born Walter Tetzlaff June 2, 1915 in New York City. His career began as an actual child --appearing on The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air in the 1930s. By the 1940s he was the most prolific child actor on the radio. His tone and cadence are immediately recognizable and helped to define the mid-20th century stereotype of a young boy. Although radio requires the listener to imagine the appearance of the players, Walter Tetley's characters, with their mixture of adult cynicism and smart-alecky childspeak invariably conjure up (in my mind, at least) images of overall-wearing, slingshot-toting, bath-hating, cowlick-sporting lil' brats.

When the popularity of TV began to overtake radio, Tetley still found work by doing voiceover work, most recognizably as the Nerdy Sherman on the Mr. Peabody cartoons. He was 44 years old at the time. He also recorded a children's record for Capitol and commercials for Sunsweet Prunes.

Titan was discovered in 1655 by Dutchman Christiaan Huygens. It orbits Saturn. Huygens named it Luna Saturni. When more moons were discovered, it was re-named Saturn II, then IV, then VI, which stuck as the official title, even though there are at least 19 moons in closer orbit of Saturn. It's also been referred to as "Saturn's ordinary satellite," but Titan is anything but ordinary.

Titan is the only body in the solar system, aside from Earth, with stable liquid bodies at its surface* and a dense atmosphere. Its landscape is relatively smooth, although there are mountains. As on Earth, the air is primarily composed of Nitrogen. Methane and Ethane clouds produce rain, wind and weather that give it seasons. It also has subsurface oceans*.

The name Titan was chosen by John Herschel in 1847. The Titans, according to the Greek Religion and its adherents, were the former rulers of Greece during the Golden Age. The leader, Kronos, feared that his offspring would attempt to overthrow him, just as he had his father. To prevent this, he ate his children, except Zeus, who was saved and ultimately did overthrow the Titans and banish them to Tartarus.

DJ Muggs & Planet Asia have a very strong new collaborative album in Pain Language. It brings out the very best in both artists on tracks such as "Sleeper Cell," "Black Mask Men," "Smoke," "9mm" (video below), and "Death Frees Every Soul" featuring Sick Jacken.Wu-Tang members Killah Priest and GZAare among the album's many guests. Also making cameos on Pain Language (available at Amoeba in two weeks) are B-Real, Cynic, Scratch, Prodigal Sunn, Tri State, Chance Infinite, and Turban. What I love most about the Soul Assassins' DJ Muggs' top notch production is his ability to effortlessly create a dark, ominous mood -- the perfect backdrop to Fresno emcee Planet Asia -- that is enhanced with subtly interwoven soundbite samples.

I'm so intrigued by the upcoming Harvey Milk biopic, Milk, shot in my neighborhood, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn and James Franco. The trailer was finally released today and it kinda gave me a thrill-- I wasn't sure what to expect but it's looking to me from this little bit like they captured it pretty well. Here it is:

I'm hearing that the premiere will be Oct. 28th at the Castro Theater! I just may have to swing by...

Congratulations to the new DMC DJ champion of the USA DJ Slyce who took the title hands down (once again) last Saturday night at the Knitting Factory in New York and consequently will travel to the UK later this month for the 2008 DMC World Championship finals September 26th/27th. It was a kind of deja vu for DJ Slyce who also won the US DMC title eleven years ago (see video clip of that legendary 1997 DMC routine below). "Anyone who said hip hop was dead has not been to a recent hip-hop DJ battle and with the return of DMC to the Mecca I can assure you the DJ element of our culture is alive and kicking some serious ass! An historical night to say the least and not because DMC was back in New York, not because it was the first time a father and son competed-- it was having such a variety of past and future legends share the stage and tear the decks up," said Washington DC (formerly of the SF Bay Area) DJ Dust One, who drove the four plus hours to NYC just to attend the event last weekend.

Dust One stressed to me how blown away he was by both seeing Grand Wizzard Theodore (creator of the scratch) and to getting to talk to him. "I asked him if it must feel great to watch what he created develop into such an art form. He smiled and proudly answered, 'I created monsters,'" related Dust One, adding that, "DJ Slyce stole the show and will represent the United States with the utmost showmanship and [it] would not surprise me if he took the world title back home. His set was flawless and the creativity took it to another level.Competition was definitely tough, but DJ Slyce showed us he is the best! Much respect to all the competitors, the judges and to Christie Z for coordinating such a great show!"

DMC Events Coordinator Christie Z Pabon is a the tireless ambassador of turntablism as well as the other elements of hip-hop. She had not organized a DMC battle for several years, instead focusing more on her own hip-hop dedicated organization, Tools of War. Pabon was perhaps the single reason why this year's US DMC battles seemed to bring the battle back on track after years of people complaining of it slipping. I talked with Christie Z, who organized the DMC battles from 1998 to 2000 and who likely will stay on board for upcoming years' DMCs, about how she felt about last weekend's event in NYC:

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

London's Victoria and Albert Museum has announced that it has bought perhaps the most recognizable logo in all of music at an auction in the U.S. -- the original artwork for The Rolling Stones famous "lips" logo, inspired by the Mick Jagger’s pouty mouth. The museum bought the work for $92,500.

The lips-and-tongue logo was designed by London art student John Pasche in 1970, and first appeared on the inside sleeve of the Sticky Fingers album released the following year. Pasche would go on to design posters for several Rolling Stones tours of the 1970’s, and the promotional sticker for Goats Head Soup plus a couple of single sleeves for the Stones.

According to an article in The Guardian, the idea for the logo came when Pasche, a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, first met Jagger in the Rolling Stones' offices. “Face to face with him, the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and his mouth,” Pasche was quoted as saying.

Pasche added that he would use the money from the auction to send his 11-year-old son to private school. Initially paid just £50 for the logo, later when the Stones copyrighted the design Pasche received a share of the royalties’ rights; eventually he sold his share for a lump sum.

Since his early ‘masterpiece’ Pasche has done considerable design work for the record industry including albums, single sleeves and posters for artists such as Paul McCartney, The Stranglers, The Vapors, David Bowie, Judas Priest, The Who, the Bay City Rollers, the Art of Noise and Jethro Tull.

On Monday, September 1, legendary voice actor Donald LaFontaine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following complications from pneumothorax. LaFontaine was 68 years old.

You may not recognize his name but you would surely recognize his iconic baritone voice used in over 5000 movie trailers, video game trailers, and something like 750,000 television spots and commercials. For the past 25 years he has been the "King of Voiceovers." Based on the number of contracts signed, LaFontaine has the distinction of being the single busiest actor in the history of the Screen Actors Guild.

He became identified with the ubiquitous trailer-opening phrase "In a world...” something he parodied recently in a commercial for GEICO insurance, using his most ominous and melodramatic voice.

Donald LaFontaine is survived by his actress-singer wife, Nita Whitaker, and three children.